TRAVIS GETTYS
Two Florida police officers are accused of forcing an 11-year-old girl to the ground at gunpoint after responding to a burglary call at her home.
The child was watching television in bed when the officers let themselves into her family’s Groveland home with their weapons drawn after the burglary alarm was accidentally activated, reported WFTV-TV.
She said one of the officers pushed her to the ground and held here there with his knee while the other officer pointed his gun at her.
“I was very scared and didn’t know what to do,” she said.
The officers asked if she was the homeowner and then went to her father’s room down the hall.
“Someone should get fired for doing something like this,” said the girl’s father, Jean Guirand.
Groveland police launched an internal investigation after the TV station called seeking comment.
The two officers, James Festa and John Rigdon, are three-year veterans with previous disciplinary actions in their personnel files.
Festa was reprimanded in December for botching a child abuse investigation and was suspended in 2013 for sleeping on the job.
Rigdon was suspended in May, demoted from corporal in 2013, and reprimanded in 2011 – each time for filing false police reports.
The police chief said the department takes the allegations seriously, and officers were scheduled to speak with the girl Monday.
Watch an interview with the girl posted online by WFTV-TV
#SaveOurChildren (2/3/14): Our lives and families are under attack— our kids are the main target. Today, I’ll be launching a new series highlighting stories of black and brown children being targeted by the police under the hashtag “#saveourchildren.” If you have stories to share, please forward them to me, or create a post yourself that I’ll happily boost. We must say no more Tamir Rice’s and Aiyanna Jones’s— this ends today! #staywoke #farfromover
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